At a manoeuvring position the vehicle has a seat, rotating according to a vertical axis of rotation, which can rotate between a front position in which it is facing the front part of the vehicle and a rear position in which it is facing the rear part of the vehicle.
When the seat is in the front position the vehicle driving means are in front of the operator, whilst when the seat is in the rear position the working device movement means are in front of the operator. Various types of movement means are currently used. A first technology uses mechanical controls consisting of a set of levers.
A second technology, described for example in U.S. Pat. No. 6,564,896, instead uses servo-controls which can be operated by means of a pair of controllers mounted on the top of two vertical tower assemblies pivoting at the base.
When the seat is in the rear position, the two tower assemblies may be rotated relative to the base so as to move the controllers towards or away from the seat.
In both of the types described, the movement means are always active and in all movements allow use of the working device which in most cases is an articulated arm with a bucket at the end.
However, these known technologies have the significant disadvantage of the risk that the rear working device may be operated accidentally, in particular as the operator moves from the front position to the rear position.
When this occurs the arm may swivel and strike any obstacles and/or persons present close to the machine.
Yet it should be considered that the operator must occasionally be able to manoeuvre the arm even when driving the vehicle normally, for example in order to get the machine into narrow spaces.
Another disadvantage of the machines used today is the similar risk of accidentally starting the vehicle when the operator is working with the rear arm.